


Is There Any Room Large Enough To Hold Their Massive Egos?

by afteriwake



Series: The Ordinary & The Extraordinary [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Conversations, Crossover, Crossover Friendship, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Egos, Established Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, Female Friendship, Friendly Clara, Friendly Molly, Gen, Kind Clara, Kind Molly, POV Molly, POV Molly Hooper, Rescue, Sherlock Being Sherlock, Snark, Twelfth Doctor Era, Understanding Clara, Understanding Molly, coming to an understanding, female bonding, one-upmanship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-05-25 18:52:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6206563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the course of a case he’s working on with Molly’s assistance Sherlock encounters a man he’s heard stories about, a man that cannot <i>possibly</i> exist: the infamous Doctor, as well as his human companion, Clara Oswald. While the two men match wits to see who has the superior intellect, Clara and Molly settle in for a friendly chat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chitarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitarra/gifts).



> So a little while back **Chitarra** requested a 2K to 3K word fic from me with this as the prompt: " _A Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover where Sherlock and Molly meet Twelve and Clara. Sherlock and Twelve, with their similar personalities and attitudes, keep trying to one-up each other while Molly and Clara watch, swap stories about them, and giggle a lot, and the guys don't understand what's so funny._ " I may not be able to finish it today because I haven't watched all the episodes she wants included (I'm only part of the way through Series 8 and waiting for my library to get it in) but I figured I could at least start it today for Sherlolly Appreciation Week and hopefully finish it shortly!

There were things about this case that made no sense. Absolutely none at all. She had listened to Sherlock turn the facts over and over like puzzle pieces in his mind, looking for any way to make them fit, and he was absolutely stumped. This did not bode well, she realized. It would put him in a foul mood and any plans for having a pleasant evening away from Barts and the morgue would be dashed. And that was not what she wanted at _all_.

They were taking things slowly. Not at a snail’s pace, thank goodness; she’d have gone mad if it was _that_ slow. But after the case that both he and Sally had worked on separately and solved at the same time, the case that had gotten Sally the recognition she should have had long ago and earned her the promotion to Detective Inspector she should have had long ago, they’d been moving slowly and surely towards something beyond friendship. They were _definitely_ an item of some sort but she wasn’t quite sure they would be boyfriend and girlfriend, not quite yet. Exclusive but not yet a couple. 

Something like that.

But whatever they were, at the rate they were going tonight, she would end up in her flat alone while he would be at Baker Street, staring at his wall, possibly throwing darts at copies of her autopsy report pinned up on it. Or maybe Greg’s police report; she wasn’t quite sure.

He was pacing in front of the cot in her office and she was watching him. Normally she relished any opportunity to watch him move with the fluid grace he moved with but right now it was just making her irritated and making her want to push him onto a chair and sit on him so he couldn’t get up. “Sherlock?” she asked.

“Yes?” he replied.

“Stop pacing.” He ignored her, continuing to prowl back and forth like a caged animal. Finally she had enough and got out of her seat, standing firmly in his path. He didn’t even seem to realize she was there until he collided with her, and she fell backward a bit. He reached out to steady her, holding her close for a moment, much longer than he needed to. “Why don’t you take a break?” she suggested.

“Are you suggesting I take a break with you?” he asked.

“The thought had crossed my mind,” she said, beginning to wind her arms up around his neck with only the slightest bit of hesitancy, a hesitancy that vanished when he slid his arms around her waist. She smiled up at him. “I see you aren’t ‘all work and no play’ these days.”

“I’ve thought, perhaps, a bit of down time isn’t so bad,” he said as he looked down at her.

“Is that so?” she asked.

He nodded, leaning in more. “Yes,” he replied. “At least if the down time is spent with you.”

“That’s good to know,” she murmured as she began to raise herself up. They hadn’t kissed much, but it had been quite the pleasurable experience when they had, and she had hopes that as time went on they would grow to do so more often. Their lips had just met and he had pulled her closer against him when there sounds of the morgue doors opening was heard and then the clatter of metal hitting the tile floor outside her office. “What was that?” she asked as she tore herself away from him.

“I don’t know,” he said. He pulled himself completely away with some reluctance, then used himself to shield her as they both moved towards the doors to investigate. He got to the door of her office and opened it a crack when he heard something with a rather metallic and slightly eerie voice shout “Exterminate!” before he slammed the door shut again.

“What was _that_?” she asked, her eyes wide with horror.

“I don’t know, but it was hostile and I don’t want to find out,” he said. He looked around. “There’s still the emergency exit out the window?”

She nodded. “Yes,” she said.

He reached for his Belstaff. “Get ready to use it,” he replied.

“Very well,” she said, going to get her coat as well when her office door opened. She found herself looking at a short metallic machine gliding into the doorway. It looked tiered almost, with many small circular objects on it, and it had two arms of a sort projecting from it. One looked like it had a whisk at the end and the other a plunger. On what looked like the headpiece it had an eyestalk.

“You are Sherlock Holmes,” it said. “You are an enemy of the Daleks. You will be exterminated.”

He backed up as the figure made its way into the office. “You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

“Sherlock…” Molly said, moving closer to him.

“It all makes sense now,” he replied. “All of it. I thought the stories were lies, the files my brother tried to keep hidden. Torchwood, the secret arm of UNIT, but it’s true. They were trying to protect the world from the likes of you and your ilk. To keep the secrets of the Doctor.”

“The Doctor is a good Dalek,” the Dalek said as the morgue doors opened again.

Sherlock frowned. “If what I read of the Daleks is true I suppose that would be a great insult,” he said.

“And I take it as one,” a man with grey hair with a black T-shirt, blue hooded zip up jumper, black suit jacket and plaid trousers said . “Think fast!” The Dalek turned and he reached up to flip the sunglasses that were on top of his head down over his eyes, fiddling with them for a moment, and then the Dalek began to smoke a bit. Finally he came over to them, shaking his head. “Oh, I despise that comparison,” he said in disgust before looking Sherlock up and down. Then he glanced back at the double doors. “It’s safe now, Clara!”

After a moment a petite woman with brown hair wearing a knee length light blue dress with a floral print, blue tights and a navy blue cardigan came in, shaking her head. “You were cutting it close, Doctor,” she said, smirking slightly.

“Well, it wasn’t _my_ fault I didn’t realize he had a social life,” the Doctor said with a shrug. “I’d assumed he’d be somewhere other than the morgue. Bit of a morbid place. Good thing you realized his wife—”

“Girlfriend,” Clara corrected.

“Is the best pathologist in the world,” he said, not appearing to have heard her.

Her smirk grew a little wider and she moved around the Dalek to Sherlock and Molly. “Don’t mind him. He’s cranky when he has to deal with Daleks. I’m Clara. Clara Oswald. And that’s the Doctor.”

“Molly Hooper,” Molly said, recovering first and offering her hand.

“Sherlock Holmes,” Sherlock said, staring at the Doctor with a sort of awe as Molly and Clara shook hands.

“I take it you know about him, from the look on your face,” Clara said when she let go of Molly’s hand.

Sherlock nodded. “Of him, yes. Confidential files I stole from my brother to peruse. I thought it was bollocks.”

“Not bollocks, mate. I do exist,” the Doctor said.

“Why don’t you two chat?” Clara suggested. “I can keep Molly here company.”

“I can call for takeaway, if you think it will take a while,” Molly suggested.

“Thai,” Sherlock said. “My usual.”

“I’d love Thai,” Clara said with a smile of her own. She nodded towards the cot. “I get the sinking suspicion this is going to take a while, so we should make ourselves comfortable.”

“All right,” Molly said with a nod. She had no idea what had happened, but she was going to go with the flow. That was a lesson she had learned well over the years, and she was going to put it to good use now.


	2. Chapter 2

She had gotten the feeling from the “wife/girlfriend” exchange that Clara and the Doctor had had that she and Sherlock had quite a bit of a future together. The Doctor didn’t eat any of the takeaway, and really, Sherlock was only picking at his food because he was busy trying to be in the middle of a game of mental one-upmanship with the Doctor, so Clara and Molly were sitting over by her desk in the chairs, watching the two of them with slightly amused expressions on their faces.

“Is he always like this?” Molly asked, spearing a piece of kung pao chicken with her fork.

“Who, the Doctor?” Clara asked, swallowing her bite of beef and broccoli. She nodded when she was done. “He likes to show off. It’s his absolute favourite thing to do.”

“Sherlock’s exactly the same way,” Molly said with a chuckle. “I think all extremely smart people are that way, to be honest.”

“Oh, but the Doctor is so bloody cocky about it,” Clara said. “There was an incident with Robin Hood that was a massive ego contest that would have been more amusing if he wasn’t so grumpy. This version is much grumpier than the last one.”

“Last one?” Molly asked.

Clara nodded again. “The Doctor regenerates, you see. This Doctor is the Twelfth regeneration. Or the Thirteenth, rather. I’ve traveled with him and the Eleventh. Like night and day, they are. And I’ve met the Tenth and the one they called the War Doctor, who would have been the Ninth regeneration if he’d called himself a proper Doctor.”

“Oh, that’s absolutely fascinating,” Molly said. “Sherlock just...faked his death, you see. He had gotten a fan who thought he was cleverer, and he made his life a bloody mess. The only way he could get out from under it all was to fake his death and to take out his criminal organization from deep cover.”

“The Doctor’s had his fair share of enemies over the years as well,” Clara said, her voice getting tight. “Madam Kovarian caused him to fake his death, but that was before my time with him. And Missy...Missy was one of the worst.”

Molly tilted her head slightly. “I take it you had personal dealings with Missy?” she asked gently.

“She’s the female regeneration of someone the Doctor has known since childhood, the Master,” Clara said. “She’s part of the reason my boyfriend is...gone.”

Molly set her food aside and patted Clara’s arm. “I’m sorry,” Molly said.

“It’s all right,” Clara said with a sad smile. “He had died in an accident, and then she was collecting people to turn them into Cybermen, and he ruined her plans. He gave up his chance to come back to do something quite noble. That’s the type of man Danny was.” She looked away for a moment as Sherlock and the Doctor got particularly loud. “Your Sherlock turns out to be a man like him, in later years. His travels and his relationship with you change him.”

“It’s good to know that,” Molly said with a soft smile. She picked up her food again and had some more of it. “All of this seems so surreal. How do you cope with it on a regular basis?”

“It’s been hard,” she admitted. “I’ve lost quite a bit, but I’ve gained a lot, too.” She looked over at the Doctor. “We had a rough time for a bit, this regeneration and I. But it’s better, now. We’ve gotten better now.”

“I know what it’s like to have a hard time getting along with someone you care about,” Molly said. “It’s always a bit of a hard time, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Clara said. She had some more of her food as well. “I’ve never really gotten to have conversations like this with people. Danny understood a bit, in some ways, but you get it too. It’s nice.”

“Oh yes, I don’t get to have conversations like this much either,” Molly said, brightening a bit. She was going to say more when Sherlock muttered an oath and she winced. “Oh, they’re really at each other's throats, aren’t they?”

“Watch, they’ll turn out to be the best of friends,” Clara said with a smirk before spearing some beef. “And the Doctor can be a good friend to have, just as I’m sure Sherlock is a good friend to have as well.”

“He is,” Molly said with a nod. “He wasn't before, but he is now. He was a good friend before we started dating, I mean. I helped him fake his death, and even though we went through a rough patch when he came back and I was seeing someone else, we managed to right things and get our friendship back on track.”

“It’s always a good thing to have good friendships,” Clara said. 

“Oh yes. I’m quite lucky to have as many as I do.” Molly had some more of her chicken. “Do you have a lot of friends?”

“Not as many as I would like,” Clara said.

“Well, I suppose I would consider you a friend now,” Molly said. “After all, you and the Doctor did help save my life.”

“And I’d consider you a friend as well, Molly,” Clara said with a smile. “Perhaps one day, if those two egomaniacs can get along, maybe we can all go travel through time or among the stars together.”

“Oh, that would be lovely!” Molly said, her eyes wide and a wide smile on her face. “I would love to go somewhere and do something exciting like that. That would be utterly amazing like that.”

“Well, once we get this Dalek business sorted, perhaps we can see,” Clara said. She turned to look over at the Doctor. “Oi! Doctor! Are you done trying to impress Sherlock yet?”

“We’ve come to a truce of sorts over who’s the better of the two of us, I suppose,” the Doctor called back. “Why do you ask?”

“I thought it might be nice to take Molly and Sherlock off somewhere,” she said.

“Dispose of the Dalek first, sightseeing for the lovebirds later,” the Doctor said, waving his hand. “Come on, Clara, we have work to do.”

“And I suppose I must be off,” Clara said, finishing off her last bite of food and setting her carton down before standing up. “But I promise, if he remembers, we’ll come back. Promise. And if not I’ll look you up when I’m not traveling with him for coffee or something.”

Molly nodded. “I look forward to it,” she said. She watched as Clara moved over to the Doctor and the two of them maneuvered the Dalek out of her office. Sherlock came over to her and then sat in Clara’s abandoned chair. “Did you enjoy yourself?”

“It was very thrilling,” he said, picking up the food he had ignored. “I haven’t had a battle of wits quite like that in some time.”

“Was it really a draw?” she asked with a smile. 

He tilted his head back and forth slightly. “If you don’t breathe a word of it to him I’ll admit that he’s _slightly_ more intelligent than I am.”

“That must take a lot out of you to admit,” she said with a chuckle.

“Perhaps,” he conceded. He had a bite of his food. “So, were you still amenable to taking that break?”

“I think I am,” she said, her smile growing wider. “I think after the harrowing events of this evening no one will mind if I leave a bit early. Maybe we can go back to my flat and watch a film or two? Curl up on the sofa and stay close?”

“I think that sounds like a good way to spend an evening,” he said with a nod. “We can take our food with us.”

“Or _you_ can take _your_ food,” she said, her laugh a bit louder this time. “I ate all of my takeaway while I was chatting with Clara.”

“Then perhaps I can entice you with dessert,” he said.

“Mmm, I can be enticed by that,” she said with a smile. She picked up her empty container and Clara’s and then tossed them in her rubbish bin in her office before going to get her coat. “I’m ready when you are.” She watched him close his carton and get ready, and she found herself shaking her head, smile on her face. She hadn’t had any idea that her evening was going to take such a wild turn, but it had turned out well, she supposed. She had nearly died because of a hostile alien and possibly made a new friend. It had been a strange day but at least she was alive, and she was thankful for that. At least now she could go relax. That was good.


End file.
